Energy conservation is an important aspect of energy policies. Consumers from various sectors such as commercial, residential, and the like are looking for strategies to effectively manage their energy consumption to be compliant with regulations, or be socially responsible and achieve greater economic benefits. Programmable thermostats are one example of an energy management device that has been prevalent in the industry for a long time to help consumers optimize and minimize energy usage.
Applications operating on energy management devices generally allow the users to monitor and maintain their energy consumption at desired levels. Mobile devices such as smart phones and small-screen displays such as those in liquid crystal display thermostats, however, present real-estate constraints that may impact the ease-of-use of the device to accomplish certain complex tasks. Particularly, implementing a detailed programming schedule with existing interfaces of energy management devices is a complex task.